Google Store Sends User Information To App Developers

Several readers have passed on news of a privacy hole in the Google app store. Reader Strudelkugel writes with the news.com.au version, excerpting: "Every time you purchase an app on Google Play, your name, address and email is passed on to the developer, it has been revealed today. The 'flaw' — which appears to be by design — was discovered this morning by Sydney app developer Dan Nolan who told news.com.au that he was uncomfortable being the custodian of this information and that there was no reason for any developer to have this information at their finger tips."

Comments

Comment? No comment.

[ljw1004]

From the article:

Google has not responded to news.com.au's request for comment.
UPDATE: This story has been amended at the request of Google.

So has Google responded or not?

I didn't realise this was a secret

[Bogtha]

I understand that it might not be immediately obvious, but I don't think this was a secret by any means. It uses Google Wallet for payments, which is essentially Google's answer to PayPal, and this gives your contact details to the person you are buying from. The first time I bought anything from Google Marketplace, I received a confirmation email from the developers themselves, it never occurred to me that people might not realise this.

I can see both sides of the argument. I've seen what happens when developers don't have this information, such as with Apple's App Store - it's very frustrating as you want to reach out to customers that have had problems and posted negative reviews to try to solve their problem and prevent it from happening to anybody else, but you've got no way of contacting them.

On the other hand, I've been spammed by people I've bought goods from through Amazon's Marketplace, so I'm not keen on that happening again. The ideal solution would be for Google to provide a forwarding, anonymised email address to the developers, like Facebook do with Facebook app developers.

Re:"Flaw"?

[samkass]

If this were the iOS or Windows Phone stores, then yes, that would be true. But with Google Play, the developer actually IS the merchant. The Play Store itself is only an intermediary. The system is setup like any other online store where there are "ordered" and goods are "shipped". Blame the fact that Google basically grafted the paid Android store onto a system that was meant for real-world goods.

Honestly though, this isn't news. Every Android developer has known this for YEARS. And this is no different than any other online store out there.

Apple does not give you a 1099-- you are the seller, and Apple is acting only as an intermediary. That being said, Apple does not share ANY of this information with publishers. Even magazine sellers via Newsstand on an iOS device can only receive customer information if the customer opts-in to it. Apple's profit model is to sell more devices, and keeping strict privacy guarantees for customers helps sell devices. Google's profit model is to sell advertising, so people expect far less protection from Android. But legally they're both intermediaries between the buyers and the sellers.